Atrocious Coast Conference

Good morning! Hope you enjoyed the first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament. It was a day with a couple upsets, some terrific games and no real bracket-busting outcomes. In other words, nothing to kill the vibe.

Let's dive in.

Haters take victory lap after ACC’s rough day

There were just four ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament, but NCAA Tournament history says ACC teams — NC State last season, Miami in ‘23, UNC in ‘22, etc — often overperform compared to seeding.

Thursday was a rough start.

Louisville trailed Creighton by 15 points at halftime in the day’s first game. The Cardinals attempted a second-half comeback, but an ill-advised tech by coach Pat Kelsey ruined any hopes.

Just an hour later, Clemson tipped off against McNeese, and trailed by double-digits after just a few minutes (Its 13 first-half point were, despite some X.com attention, not a tourney worst). A late surge made the final score closer than it really was.

This leaves just blue bloods Duke and North Carolina. The Devils can certainly win it all, but UNC’s in a coin-flip game today vs. Ole Miss. Judging a program’s season off how it performs in a single-elimination tournament is usually stupid. But for a league that’s puffed out its chest the last few years thanks to March runs, we’ll see how the league’s rep fares after this tournament.

1. West Region: Cal beats Self in primetime coach battle

Some of the best coaches of the last 40 years were in the West Region (even if their teams played in the Providence pod). And while Bill Self vs. John Calipari drew most of the attention, it was a first-year D-I coach who came away as the biggest winner.

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